Doctoral Dissertation Research: Youth Activism in Post-Conflict Societies

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Stanford University doctoral student Yasemin Ipek Can, supervised by Dr. Sylvia Yanagisako, will undertake research on public space and youth activism in post-conflict societies. The research will be conducted in Lebanon where there has been a recent valorization of youth (shabaab) activism. She will study the popular and dynamic notion of shabaab in Lebanon both as a social agent that claims control over the public space and as representative of Lebanese identity. Focusing on youth activism offers a unique lens for understanding everyday contestations, anxieties, and anticipations of the future in the context of post-civil war sectarian polarization.Ipek Can will conduct 12 months of fieldwork in Beirut where she will examine everyday youth social interaction in two multi-sectarian neighborhoods. Her methodology will combine traditional ethnographic methods with insights from linguistic anthropology and social network analysis in order to document the diverse dynamics of interaction among young people. Life history interviews with young residents, participant observation of their family settings, everyday gatherings and conversations, and analysis of their use of social media will be supported with social network analysis. This research also entails semi-structured interviews with state officials, local governors and youth-based NGOs, as well as content analyses of their published materials. This project will be a pioneering ethnography for theorizing the affective and temporal dimensions of identity and belonging among youth in post-conflict societies. The findings of this research will also increase collaboration among Lebanese scholars, Lebanese government, local youth-based NGOs, transnational organizations focusing on youth, and scholars studying youth, sectarianism, conflict-resolution, everyday publics, affect, temporality and the role of language in everyday social interaction. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.